Island Living: How Much For Your Own Slice of Paradise?

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014: Oracle founder Larry Ellison has one in Hawaii. Actor Mel Gibson has one in Fiji. And billionaire adventurer Richard Branson bought his piece of the British Virgin Islands decades ago.

Private islands are the playground of the wealthy, meaning buying your own slice of paradise is well out of financial reach for most property seekers. So how much exactly would a private island in the Pacific set you back?

Leading property portal Lamudi recently helped a real estate agent secure a long-term lease on a 10,000-hectare private island in Cagayan Province in northern Philippines. The lease was valued at 88.72 billion Philippine pesos, or $US 2 billion – the equivalent of $80,000,000 a year.

Licensed real estate broker John Mesina successfully closed the 25-year lease on the picturesque Fuga Island with an American client after advertising the property online on the Lamudi Phillipines website. The island boasts white sandy beaches, rocky cliffs, and rolling terrain, according to the agent description.

Facilitating a transaction for an island sale or lease is much trickier than selling an apartment or house, especially in the Philippines. There are environmental issues that must be sorted out with government regulators, not to mention that many islands are located in protected areas. In the case of Fuga Island, however, the transaction was made much simpler because the island is part of the Cagayan Special Economic Zone.

Jacqueline van den Ende, Managing Director of Lamudi Philippines, said: “With its vibrant and buoyant real estate market, buying property is becoming more fun in the Philippines. Now the demand, especially from foreign clients, is spilling over to private islands and isles, which is not surprising as the country has over 7100 of them to choose from.”

Lamudi Philippines has 18 other island listings on its website, located in the provinces of Ilocos Norte, Palawan and Batangas. Lamudi Indonesia also regularly lists islands for sale or lease, with a current listing offering a 3.4 ha island valued at $3.29 million.

ABOUT LAMUDILaunched in 2013, Lamudi is a global property portal focusing exclusively on emerging markets. The fast-growing platform is currently available in 28 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, with more than 600,000 real estate listings across its global network. The leading real estate marketplace offers sellers, buyers, landlords and renters a secure and easy-to-use platform to find or list properties online.